Quest Summary

You can Take it for 1 AP, whereupon it turns out to be an Oriental Book.

Oriental Book: Handwritten in an exotic looking language.

It costs a base 24 AP to read the book, but this is reduced as normal by wearing reading glasses and/or being at the Memorial Library. Reading the book isn't very helpful, though:

Unfortunately it's written in foreign. All you can make sense of are the
illustrations, which mostly depict little bald wrinkly smiling figures in robes.

Now, if you visit a Monastry (sic), you will see the following extra text beneath the standard description:

These monks are dressed in similar robes to the drawings in that book you
found. Perhaps one of them can understand the writing?

You will be able to Show Book to the monks for 10 AP. They'll take a look at it, but usually won't be able to read it either:

The monks pass it around, but none of them can read it. Better keep looking.

If you've asked at a Monastry before, the text appended to the description changes to:

None of the monks here can make sense of the writing in your book.

As the game said, you need to keep looking. Eventually, you'll find the right Monastry; exactly which one this is varies from player to player. There is a list of monastry locations on the talk page. Note that Temples in Oz do not count. When you do find the right Monastry, it turns out that the only person who can read the book is its author. My handwriting is like that too, sometimes.

Be prepared to spend metric butt tons of AP looking for the blasted monsatry -- I've spent nearly 2k AP and am only 1/3 of the way through the list. - Heyus2 10:20, 21 April 2010 (BST)

An elderly monk steps forward. "I am Count Dante, master of Dimac, the world's deadliest martial art.
I warn you that I am capable of instantly killing or mutilating any assailant, should I so wish. I am
the author of the training manual you have there."

He'll offer to teach you:

Count Dante is here. "Do you desire that your hands and feet were deadly weapons, and that you could
kill, maim, disfigure, tear, rend, and cripple your foes with the mere pressure of a fingertip? I can
teach you."

You can then choose to Learn for 10 AP, but not very successfully:

The wizened monk goes through some exercises with you for a while.
After a few attempts at the Fire Fox Crouch, he shakes his head.
"First you must defeat a Fire Fox in hand to hand combat. Then I can teach you more."

You have to find the indicated monster and defeat it with Martial attacks. Be careful here; any other form of attack on the monster causes the fight not to count. That includes weapons, pets, or even using a wand to align the monster. You must use Martial attacks only (but wearing Reactive Armour is OK, you can say "It" to Knights Who Say Ni, and alignment spells work fine). The success or failure of the fight will be indicated when you slay the monster:

Success:

You feel deadly.

Failure:

You feel cowardly.

Presumably, dying to the monster also counts as failure. So don't do that.

Wand of anger also counts as failure. I don't have a bling to anger my sparrow. - Heyus2 12:56, 21 April 2010 (BST)

You have to fight a total of 30 monsters this way. Once you are done, you will learn the secrets of the Poison Hand.

You spar against Dante. This time you match his blows with equal ferocity, until
at last he halts and bows to you.
"Your training is complete. Truly you have mastered the art of the Poison Hand."
You gain a Poison Hand.